Holly is a symbol of goodwill and joy. In the Victorian language of flowers, holly means foresight. Holly is seen as a symbol of good luck in both Christianity and Islam. But most importantly for me, it is said that disputes are often solved "under the holly tree"

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Monday, December 17, 2007

Settler Violence Report for October-November 2007

Hebron and South of West Bank* On 7 October, the Central Command of the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank issued a new Military Order to confiscate 1,130 dunam to build the Separation Wall around the settlements of Ma’ale Adumim, Kefar Adumim and Mishor Adumim, to the east of Jerusalem. The land that will be confiscated, according to military order number 70/19/T, belongs to tens of families from Abu Dis and as-Sawahira ash-Sharqiya towns. All the land that will be confiscated, in the areas called Marej Sultan, She’eb Mousa, Ratq, Jabal Dahda, Wadi Hakber, Jabal Badawi and Janjas, is located to the east of the villages. Hassan Abed Rabbo, General Director of the Local Government in Jerusalem (Palestinian Authority) said that this action is part of the called “Great Jerusalem Project.”

* On 15 October, the settlers who occupied the al-Rajabi building, to the west of Qiryat Arba, on 19 March, prevented the residents from walking and using the near ymain road. The resident Bassam Ja’bari Fahed said that the settlers stopped the residents and told them not to use the road, which leads to tens of Palestinians houses in the area. He added that there is no reason for the type of aggression that settlers commit against them from time to time. According to Ja’bari, actions of this sort often occur in front of the soldiers who are apparently there only to defend the settlers.

* On 17 October, some settlers, in cooperation with soldiers, attacked many farmers and international activists who came to harvest the olive trees near Otni’el settlement, in the south hills of Hebron. Both the Israeli military and settlers tried to force the farmers and solidarity groups to leave the place, but they refused to do it.

* On 20 October, five settlers from the Betar Illit settlement, to the west of Bethlehem, stopped 33-year-old Ameen Ahmed Mahmoud Hamamreh, from Hussan village to the east of the settlement, while he was walking along the road near the settlement and attacked him using stones. He was injured on his face and back. The settlers continued to beat him for one hour, and then a Palestinian resident came and took him to the local clinic in the village. Ameen said: “They stopped me while I was trying to go to my land which is located near the settlement.”

* On 21 October, in the evening, the settlers who occupied al-Rajabi building last March, to the west of Qiryat Arba settlement, started throwing stones at Palestinian residents who were walking to reach their houses near the building. Additionally, they used dogs against the children. Since the settlers occupied the building, the Israeli military has blocked the main road, which Palestinian residents use to reach their 35 homes located in the area. During this time, the settlers started throwing stones on them many times.

* On 21 October, tens of settlers from Betar Illit settlement, to the west of Bethlehem, entered with bulldozers onto the land belonging to farmers from the village of Nahalin, to the south of the settlement. The land is located to the west of the village. The settlers began leveling and working the land, but the farmers from the village came. Some clashes took place between them, and then the soldiers arrived forcing the settlers to go away. Osma Shkarna, the Popular Committee coordinator in the village, said that the settlers used to come to this place, called A’en Fares, to the west of the village, with the purpose of confiscating it. This is an agricultural area and it is very close to the houses of the village. In many cases, the settlers damaged and cut the trees. At the same time, the settlement itself discharged sewage and wastewater in this place to force the farmers not use, making it easier to confiscate at a future time.

* On 22 October, settlers from Betar Illit, to the west of Bethlehem, began work building a new settlement road on the land belonging to families from the Hussan, Nahalin and Wadi Fukin villages, all located near the settlement. Local sources in Hussan village said that the settlers’ bulldozers came in the morning and leveled the route of the road outside the settlement. The same sources added that 150 dunam will be closed in between the road and the settlement, which means that it will be confiscated and annexed to the settlement. The areas targeted by this operation, called Khirbit al-Abed, Mo’agat and Khallet Saraweel, are located to the west of the mentioned villages. The Local Committee against the settlement project in Wadi Fukin decided to bring the case to the court, and to launch an action program against this new project.

* On 26 November, five settlers from the outpost of Ramot Yashai in Tal Rumeida, in the downtown of Hebron renewed their attacks against the home of Tayseer Abu Aisha. Three windows of the house were broken because from stones thrown by the settlers. The family reported that during the last few months, the number of attacks by settlers has increased.

* On 2 November, in the evening, around 30 settlers from Qiryat Arba and Givat Harsina settlements, located to the east and east north of Hebron city, attacked the house of Abed al-Kareem Ja’bari, located near the Givat Harsina settlement. They stoned the house, causing damage to some windows. In addition to that, they beat his 13-year-old son Ramzi. Israeli soldiers came after half hour and stopped the settlers.

* On 3 November seven residents from Hebron were injured in different places by the settlers. The family of Abed al-Kareem Ja’bari, located closed to Qiryat Arba settlement was stoned from tens of settlers who engaged a big march. Three of the family members were injured by stones. Seven-year-old Ramzi Ja’bari and his 20-year-old brother Anan, were beaten with stones.

* At the same time, groups of settlers stoned houses in Wadi Nasara, to the south of the settlement. The settlers who occupied the Ja’bari Building to the west of the same settlement also stoned many houses located on the opposite side of the building. Forty-three-year-old Naser Fahed Ja’bari, 40-year-old Bassam Fahed Ja'bari, 22-year-old Abeer Mohammed Salah Ja'bari, and 65-year-old Zareefa Mohammed Rabee’ Ja’bari, were injured and taken to the hospital in the city.

* During the same afternoon, tens of settlers stoned the home of Tayseer Abu Aisah in Tel Rumeida, near the Ramot Yashai settlement outpost. Sixteen-year-old Fada’ Abu Iasha was injured in the left hand by a stone. All these attacks happened during Jews Feasts, when hundreds of settlers celebrate in many locations around downtown Hebron by attacking Palestinian houses in the areas.

* On 24 November, the Israeli prevented the farmers from a villages to the east of Yatta and activists from the International Solidarity Movements (ISM), from working the land located near the Ma’on settlement, in the southern hills of Hebron. Local sources in the area reported that the group succeeded in working 20 dunam before Israeli soldiers came and forced them to leave the place, called Kharroba. Havez Huraini, member of the Local Council in the southern hills said: “It seems that there is real cooperation between the settlers and the Army: we used to face to the settlers to prevent them from attacking us when we were going to our land. Now the soldiers came and did the same thing. This land is a daily target for the settlers to annex it to the Ma’on settlement.”

Nablus and North of West Bank* On 2 October, in the morning, hundreds of settlers came with buses to stay in the former location of the Homesh settlement, which was dismantled two years ago. They destroyed tens of trees and, for the third time, damaged the water pipes that supply the Selit Daher village. In addition, they forced many farmers and shepherds to leave the area. In the afternoon, they opened fire on a house, belonging to Kamel Malool. No one was injured. In the meanwhile, the Israeli military closed all the roads and streets that lead to many villages like Selit Daher, Bazarya and Borga. Saleh Hantoli, the Mayor of Selet Daher village, said: “We are living in real problems, the Israeli Army dismantled the settlement, but, from time to time, the settlers used to come and damage everything they find, like water pipes and trees, and close the roads. All those actions used to happen in front of the soldiers, who come to protect the settlers, and not the residents who are facing the aggressions from them. We raised a lot of cases to the Israeli Court through the Palestinian Authority but nothing changed.”

* On 16 October, settlers from the settlement of Yizhar, to the south of Nablus, attacked farmers from Tal village, while Palestinian farmers were harvesting their olive trees, located near the settlement. The 35-year-old farmer, Abed al-Fattah Hindiyya, was beaten seriously by stones on his head, after which he was evacuated to RafidyaHospital in Nablus. The farmers were forced to leave the land without finishing the harvest.

* On 19 October, Israeli military bulldozers began working and leveling land located near the industrial zone of Barkan, near the Brukin village, to the west of the city of Salfit. The mayor of the nearby village Brukin, Akrema Samara, said that the bulldozers began working on the site called Maghmar al-Shams Wal Qamar, to the north of the village. The land was confiscated years ago, and now they have begun to expand the industrial zone, which already cause many environmental problems for the residents. “A long time ago, we raised questions to the court and to the human rights organizations, on local and international levels, to try to close those factories. Now, as a result, they are expanding.”

* On 20 October, settlers from the settlement of Shave Shomron, to the west of Nablus, prevented farmers from Dair Sharaf from harvesting their trees located near the settlement. The Local Council sources said that the settlers attacked the farmers even if the Israeli military itself gave them permission to enter the land, called al-Sala’a, and harvest the olive tree crops. The same sources added that since five years the farmers used to face aggressions and attacks from the settlers, which often caused the loss of the crops of the olive trees.

* On 21 October, 40-year-old Kamal Hamed Abed al-Qader, from Tulkarem, died when a settler ran over him. Kamal and some workers were walking on the main road, called Highway Number 5, to reach their work place inside Israel, when the settler car ran over them. The Israeli Police came and called the ambulance, which took the body to the hospital in Tulkarem. The settler was taken in for investigation.

* On 4 November, around 50 settlers came and attempted to build a new outpost near the Qedumim settlement, to the north of the West Bank. The Israeli police officers forced them to out of the land, belonging to families of the nearby Kofur Kadoom village. This is the fourth times that the settlers came and tried to rebuild this outpost called Shevot Ami, which was dismantled two years ago by the Israeli military.

* On 14 November, a group of settlers stoned the home of Hani Nabhan Abu Gare’ from al-Mazr’a al-Qebleyya village, to the north of Ramallah. Hani reports that the settlers burned some of his trees near the house. They came in the first hours of the night, which scared the children in the house. This is the second time that the settlers attacked his house in the last two weeks.

* On November 15, around 20 settlers attacked the home of Hikmt Ism’el Abed El Rahaman from Brukin village, to the west of Salfit city. He said that the settlers stoned his house during the night and broke the windows, damaging also the windshield of his car. Ism’el thinks that the settlers came from the nearby settlements of Ale Zahav and Pedu’el, which are very close to his village. He added that this is the third time that his house was attacked in the last months.

* On November 18, settlers from the Qedumim settlement, east of Qalqilia, refused to leave the land that they took—despite an Israeli Court decision stating that they must leave the area -. The 55 dunam of land, located near the main road that link Qalqilia with Nabuls, belong to Badreyya Abed al-Ghani’mer, from Kofur Qaddom village. The local sources in the village said that the settlers refused to implement the decision of the court, taking, as usual, the law in their hands. In the same time the settlers continue to prevent the farmers from the village to reach their land for harvest the olive trees in the land near the settlement. According to the council sources, the farmers lost around 30 percent of their crops this year because of the settlers actions, which often happened in cooperation with the soldiers. The population in the village is 4000 people; most of them depend in their income on the olive tree crops.

* On 19 November, a group of settlers made a checkpoint on the main road close to Yizhar settlement, near Hawwara village, to the south of Nablus, and attacked the Palestinians’ cars early in the evening. One of the victims, the driver, 35-year-old Hatem Gash, reports: “I am a taxi driver, working on the way between Jenin and Ramallah. When I arrived near Yizhar Settlement, I saw lights in the middle of the street, and I thought that was a military checkpoint on the road so I slowed the speed. Soon after, I discovered that it was a group of settlers, some of them armed, standing on both sides of the road, and they were asking me to stop. As soon as I arrived close to them, they started throwing stones at my car, where there ware no passengers. Some of them damaged the windows of the car by using sticks. I drove away fast to avoid them. It is not the first time that settlers from the same settlement did such aggressions especially during the night.”

*On 26 November, Israeli soldiers closed the main roads and streets in the northwest of Nablus, near the Palestinian villages of Sabastya, Borqa, Bazarya, Imreen and Seelet Daher. The soldiers claimed that the closure was to protect tens of settlers who came to stay in the Homesh settlement that was dismantled two years ago. Since then, the settlers have been coming to the place, from time to time, and attacking residents of those villages. Residents from Borqa reported that this time the settlers stoned some houses in the western part of the village. Ghassan Doghlas, director of the Local Council in Nablus District, said, “The settlers want to occupy the place and build again the settlement. In the last months, they came many times, while the Army closed the entrances of Borqa and Bazarya using big stones.”

* On 26 November, settlers from Itamar settlement, to the south east of Nablus, attacked Sameh Ghaleb Mohmmoud, from Yanoon village, east of Nablus. Five armed settlers stopped him and beat him by using stones and sticks, while he was feeding his goats and sheep on land to the east of his village. He was treated in the local clinic. Jawdat Izzat Bany Jaber, the mayor of the nearby Aqrtaba village, said that these attacks against shepherds increased recently and it seems that they want to prevent the people from using the land around the settlement to annex it to the settlement.